RCAAP Repository

Current paper is the result of a research on twenty-eight starting university teachers in four universities in southern Brazil and seeks to understand their concern on pedagogical discussion spaces as a possible support for the development of their teaching practice. The research started from the point that starting teachers should insert themselves within higher education culture and find pedagogical support to develop their lectures. As a rule, they have recently obtained a doctoral degree, complying with the required academic title for their tenure, but with scanty or no pedagogical preparation. The subjects answered a semi-structured interview, with issues on the challenges, difficulties and possibilities of pedagogical support pointed out when they started their activities. The quantitative data form the corpus analyzed used in the analysis. The paper is based on studies by Garcia (1999, 2009b), Vaillant and Garcia (2012) and others. Results showed that pedagogical education and professional development of university professors, developed through pedagogical spaces, are essential for and welcomed by these teachers. An overall policy is required that valorizes the teaching tasks as fundamental for achieving teaching quality. 

Current paper analyzes the training curriculum of the pre-service teacher in the Undergraduate Course of Education. The aim was to perceive the factors that make the training curriculum a formative activity for teacher trainees. The qualitative research comprised data collection, observation, semi-structured interviews with 22 participants and documental sources. Results showed that the training curriculum may be formative if four points are considered: the Pre-Service Teacher participants’ conceptions; school commitment to teacher´s education; conditions and commitment of schools and teachers in teacher trainees; relationships established in the Pre-Service Teacher process. These elements put practice as central process, coupled to the school´s formal commitment to teacher’s formation. 

This article explores the idea of ‘good textbook’ in France examining the evaluation criteria, produced by publishers, authors, educational advisers and national inspectors of education from 1986 to 2013. Through the analysis of legislative devices, inspection reports, the major news from media (Le Figaro, Le Monde Diplomatique e and Libération) and specialized literature, we conclude that the teaching skills are dominant in all initiatives of producing criteria for the evaluation of textbooks. Support/design and disciplinary knowledge are in second position, followed by concerns of linguistic of accessibility and transmission of values. The text also mentions the difficulties faced by French educational managers to reconcile the right to equality with the right to freedom in education. 

Studies of public policy have grown in Brazil. However, several authors detect the conceptual blurring of themes and others indicate the prevalence of neutral action perspective of the State and the acceptance of the objectivity of public policy. These factors have hampered the comprehension of public policy as a historical product and expression of the State’s organizational processes in capitalism. Current paper analyzes the issue from a political point of view foregrounded on the fact that the close relationship between the neutral and objective treatment of public policies such as ‘State in action’ strengthens the very social cohesion of the capitalist system. The essay questions whether public policies actually aim at the public interest. After baseline studies involving the theme, current article discusses some contributions and, above all, postulates if it is not the case to rethink the adequacy of the expression ‘public policy’, as the term ‘public’, in this definition, definitely concerns the State’s role to reach only certain segments of society and it is not addressed to all. 

Editorial

La Legenda Beati Petri Gundisalvi fue redactada en el siglo XIII y presenta episodios de la vida y los hechos milagrosos atribuidos al dominicano Peter González (1190 (?) - 1246). A pesar de muy mencionada por sus biógrafos, esta obra aún no fue objeto de una edición crítica o de análisis sistemáticos. De esta forma, hay muchas dudas relacionadas a su producción. En este artículo, esta vita es comparada a la Legenda Sancti Dominici, hagiografía dedicada a Domingo de Guzmán, considerado el fundador de la Orden Dominicana. Ese texto fue el primero redactado tras la canonización papal de Domingo, en la segunda mitad de la década de 1230, y es atribuido a Peter Ferrando. El enfoque de mi reflexión es el tratamiento dado a la educación de Peter González y de Domingo de Guzmán en las legendas. El objetivo es identificar y debatir si las dos obras comparten de la misma perspectiva sobre el estudio, contribuyendo para la discusión sobre la formación de una identidad dominicana en el transcurrir del siglo XIII. 

The text was drawn from results of research carried out between 2010 and 2012. The objective was to understand the state of research and intellectual production in the area of Didactic in Southern Brazil. The documentary analysis methodology, working with documents available online was applied. The research was carried out with 9 Postgraduate Program in Education, 12 research lines, 115 professors, 244 research projects and 1730 publications. It was concluded that there is a great number of research and publication on the investigative field of Didactics and on the dimension of its foundation, but very little on the disciplinary and professional fields and on the conditions and ways of teaching. It is noteworthy that only a transformative practice can help change the reality of the school, the quality of teacher formation, of learning and mental development of the students. 

El texto trata de la inspección pública primaria, particularmente de aquella que fue ejercida por los inspectores parroquiales, considerada como una de las formas de manifestación de la política para la educación. Las investigaciones sobre los informes y oficios de la instrucción pública primaria en el período provincial paranaense (1853-1889) muestran cuestiones del cotidiano escolar y, sobre todo, de las relaciones del profesor con las autoridades responsables por la administración y por el control del trabajo en las escuelas. El objetivo del texto es profundizar los conocimientos sobre la inspección parroquial y los consejos literarios en cuanto componentes de la inspección que se hacía presente en las relaciones entre los profesores y el inspector. La metodología se inserta en la investigación documental, en el análisis de las fuentes y en el entrecruzamiento de los datos proporcionados por los informes y oficios con la legislación provincial de Paraná. Se concluye que mismo con una relativa organización legal en lo que se refería a la distribución de funciones administrativas y de control de la instrucción pública, esta permanencia bastante precaria en el final del período provincial, una vez que, solamente con el avance de las relaciones sociales de producción de la vida material, la escuela se volvería necesaria.  

The Editorial Board of Acta Scientiarum. Education would like to thank the referees listed below for their critical appreciation of articles submitted for Volume 37, n. 1 (2015).   

The aim of this essay is to discuss the inclusion of deaf students in regular classrooms as the laws dictate, which is supported by an inclusive educational perspective. This is qualitative approach study with bibliographical survey according to the topic and the main documents of the deafness area from 2002, since the Brazilian Language of Signals (Libras) became official, through the Law 10436, until 2014, on the occasion of the ‘Report on Linguistics Policies of Bilingual Education – Brazilian Language of Signals and Portuguese Language’. In this way, the article aims to present the perspective of inclusion of the Ministry of Education (MEC) and the deaf community, which are opposite. The methodologies of bilingualism and deaf pedagogy are shown as proposals respecting the linguistic and cultural differences among deaf students and, consequently, provide them with an effective process of regular education, whereas the inclusion of deaf students in regular classrooms, with the same methodological strategies, has resulted in an increasing number of illiterate deaf students unable to evolve in studies and in other aspects of life.. 

Current investigation describes and reflects on the limitations and possibilities of inclusive education by its foregrounding on Psychology and discusses aspects related to teaching, learning and development of students with disorders. Is it relevant to include these students within the school context? Is it possible to include these children? Based on the Historical and Cultural Theory, the issues involve the premise that a properly organized learning produces development. Current paper deals with a theoretical research in which we provide a historical outline of the education of people with disorders and establish a relationship between Psychology, Education and Inclusion. Results show that we have made a lot of progress with regard to normative aspects that warrant the access of students with disorder to regular schooling. However, the construction of a really inclusive school, featuring educational practices for the maximum development of the students´ capacities, is still a long way off. 

This study is related to the nine-year education and analyzes pedagogical practices and the treatment of reading lessons in the first grade of elementary school. Therefore, the following objective was proposed: to analyze reading activities used by two literacy teachers who worked in the first grade of elementary school aiming to understand how these texts can contribute to the formation of a critical reader. The survey was conducted in two schools located in the southern state of Minas Gerais and the methodology used included the observation of classrooms, interviews with the participating teachers and also the development of a diary. Our work is based on a concept of reading as a social practice and understanding of literacy based on the ideological model that admits the existence of literacy practices that are determined by the social and cultural context of the subjects. The results showed an excessive concern with the teaching of letters and their sounds, which leads us to observe the primacy of the writing technology teaching in the school context. 

The bases of the political art of John Dewey or his new practice of democratic citizenship are reviewed. Dewey is acknowledged as one of the most prominent of the American philosophers in the first half of the twentieth century. He is also the most influential due to endowing philosophy a public task, namely, political and educational concern. From the instrumentalist method applied to the political area, crucial postulates in the major writings of Dewey are selected to revitalize the meaning and draw up the practical impacts of the central element of his political philosophy: ‘the collective power of democratic community’. 

Primary and secondary public schools in Portugal are externally evaluated under the responsibility of the General Inspection of Education and Science (IGEC), starting from 2006. Since eight years after the initial experience has passed, current paper provides the degree of satisfaction with the external evaluation program of school leaders and managers with regard to the reference used, the process followed and the report sent to the schools. Data were collected by a questionnaire survey applied to 372 leaders and school managers: top managers (23 directors, 47 members of school management) and middle managers (90 coordinators of curriculum department and 212 class directors) from 25 schools in northern Portugal. Overall, the results show a higher rate of satisfaction of top managers compared to that by middle managers. With regard to the dimensions in analysis (Reference, Process and Report), it has been observed that the overall percentage of agreement lies between 53.40% (Reference), 69.10% (Report) and 81% (Process), revealing a positive positioning of respondents regarding to the External School Evaluation Program (PAEE). 

His article provides an overview of Religious Education, from the normative point of view, in three Brazilian states that regulated its offer differently. In a qualitative perspective, it was promoted an analysis whose attention was drawn to the structure and formal rules of the subject from the connections and formal-legal guidelines. In order to consider the presented elaboration, it is evident that although there is an apparent distancing of teaching models, the justifications are similar and regardless of the adopted model, the RE is a space, in which the ultimate goal is the integral formation of the subject. In this way, it is postulated that the subject may tighten the limits of secularism and disfavor individuals who profess no religion. 

Current study demonstrates that a National Student Assistance Policy, within the policies of the state, is a ‘historical construction built by several agents’. Contributions by the National Forum of Pro-Rectors for Community and Student Affairs (FONAPRACE) and by the National Union of Students (UNE) are highlighted with regard to the constitution of the National Student Assistance Program (PNAES), established by Decree 7.234 of 19 July 2010. A bibliographical and documentary research has been undertaken for current research in which a section of the Brazilian’s education discontinued history has been brought forth to demonstrate specifically some implications that collaborated towards the negation of access, permanence and conclusion to university education for most of Brazilian population. Although great progress occurred during the last decade throughpressure by the educational social movements, the inequalities within the IFES will be reduced only in another type of political system. 

Este texto se propone a analizar las elecciones de política escolar y educativas efectuadas en los territorios de Trentino y de Alto Adige, para las minorías de lengua alemana y ladina en el período entre el final del primer gran conflicto mundial y el principio del segundo. Los territorios de las nuevas provincias fueron objeto de múltiples operaciones políticas, económicas y sociales, señaladas por diferentes y opuestas estrategias: encaminamientos de implícita tendencia nacionalista que atribuían a las autoridades centrales amplios poderes legislativos se alternaron con otras orientaciones más democráticas, a fin de acoger las autonomías locales y reconocer los derechos de las minorías alemanas y ladinas. La búsqueda de equilibrio político entre las dos instancias, inicialmente perseguido, dejó el campo con la llegada del primer gobierno fascista a un nuevo escenario, en virtud del declarado fin de italianizar, todavía con la utilización de la violencia, el tipo y la organización de las nuevas provincias. El mismo escenario contradictorio marcará la evolución de las políticas escolares y educativas en los nuevos territorios. El intento de prolongar la normativa escolástica italiana a las nuevas provincias, primero de modo gradual y respetuoso delante de las minorías lingüísticas, de sus escuelas y tradiciones, sufrirá con el gobierno fascista un significativo cambio de comportamiento y razonamientos. El tema de esta investigación, que es poco estudiado y analizado en sus pormenores, asume su relevancia, sea en términos de investigación histórico-educativa dirigida al particular momento histórico y contexto geográfico, sea en términos del punto de vista de las consecuencias que tal hecho tuvo en la construcción de la república italiana.

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are characterized by impairment in social communication and restricted interests and activities. This profile may contribute to the isolation of these children and their families from social environments, such as schools. This scenario highlights the need for a closer relationship between family and school contexts to enhance educational inclusion gains and promote development and learning. The Parental Involvement refers to educational practices that parents tend to develop with their children, including involvement with the school. This study is a review of the parental involvement concept and theoretical models of family and school relationships. Few studies on this topic are related to inclusion of people with ASD, suggesting the need for more studies addressing this topic. . 

The municipality as space and municipal policies aimed at quality basic education are discussed. As a methodology, several studies that focus on educational policies implemented in municipal network systems of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, are reviewed through a re-assessment of multiple cases in which interviews were made and documents analyzed. Current paper analyzesdifferent forms of exercise of local political autonomy in municipal policies on education, based on occurrences identified in the different cases which caused discontinuities. Results show the need for institutionalization as a dimension of local political autonomy and as a relevant factor to contain the discontinuity flow thatdisruptsthe projects for quality municipal education. The educational policies linked to the Instituto Ayrton Senna are focused. 

Michel Eyquem de Montaigne’s (1533-1592) philosophy foregrounds a pedagogy based on intellectual skepticism and moral stoicism. Since the acquisition of definitive or unquestionable knowledge is impossible, there would be the unending search for something that would be somewhat more reliable or probable. Similarly, it would be mandatory to educate the subject within a virtuous conduct to do one´s duty. Current article is an attempt to approach philosophy and education and brings to the fore Montaigne´s main topics within a review of his philosophy and his ideas on education, within the historical context (Renaissance) and his most relevant work (Essays). Results show that Montaigne´s intellectual skepticism and moral stoicism ward off possible mistakes, misconceptions, errors and illusions caused by concepts that do not question to what extent knowledge is reliable and ignore the importance of the formation of human behavior. It is expected that these considerations on Montaigne’s philosophical and educational ideas may trigger discussions on the theoretical foundation of education  .